22 illinoisentertainer. com september 2025
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ou may not realize it, but you have either read or watched the work of John Owens if you lived in Chicago any time over the past 35 years. He wrote for The Chicago Reader( including a front page piece at the young age of 21) and the Chicago Tribune( for 28 years). But his main role has been in television. He still works in local television today.
“ Now I am a programming producer at Channel 7,” he explains.“ What that entails is everything that ' s not news-related. The parades, Heritage Month specials, Lights Fest, the Michigan Avenue event right before Thanksgiving, and New Year ' s Eve. I do a series called neighborhood walk, our Chicago neighborhood walk with Val Warner. Our goal is to go to every neighborhood in the city. Val takes a tour with an important person in that neighborhood. Like with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in her neighborhood of Logan Square. We did a fun one with Rich Roeper, in Dolton months before the Pope was announced, because Rich is also from Dolton.”
For years Owens was also on the board of the National Academy of Television, Arts and Sciences, including a three year stint as President from 2020-2023. And throughout all that time, he also managed to nurture a passion project that recently sent him to Baseball’ s Hall of Fame. He cowrote a book and is now co-producing a film about Chicago baseball legend Dick Allen.“ Yes, that’ s right,” he confirms.“ Eckhartz Press published the book about Dick and the 1972 White Sox( Chili Dog MVP) in late‘ 21, early‘ 22. I was proud to write that with David Fletcher. Allen’ s family told us they thought it helped get Dick over the finish line and into the Hall of Fame.”
That’ s the happy ending the film they’ ve been working on needed. John is traveling all over the country working on“ My Father, Dick Allen,” which tells Dick’ s story from the perspective of his eldest son, Richard Jr.“ I’ m a producer / writer on the project,” Owens explains.“ We ' re working with a really good director, a guy named Andy Billman, who has done some( ESPN) 30 for 30s, on the structure of the film. I ' m doing some cinematography on the film as well. We’ ve been working on this for a long time. It started back in 2012.( Co-writer) David Fletcher, Doc, as I know him, is a very enthusiastic and energetic guy. He organized an event where the White Sox and his Chicago Baseball Museum, a not-for-profit entity, paid tribute to Dick Allen, the great superstar of the 1972 White Sox team, and that 1972 team. So really the first location we filmed was that event back in June of 2012, where Dick and the team were honored at what was then called US Cellular Field.”
But that was just the beginning.“ Since then, I ' ve been to Cooperstown a couple of times, first with Dick ' s son Richard Jr. We went to Little Rock with him and Fergie Jenkins. Fergie Jenkins was a teammate of Dick Allen ' s in Little Rock in 1963, during the days of segregation there. Both
By Rick Kaempfer
JOHN OWENS’ PASSION PROJECT
were in the Phillies organization at the time, playing for the Arkansas Travelers. Dick was the first Black player for the Travelers, and he went through hell. It was the worst experience of his life. It was the experience that negatively influenced him for the remainder of his career, especially with the Phillies. So we revisited that city with his son and with Fergie. We visited Willa Allen, Dick ' s widow, up in the northernmost part of Southern California. We’ ve filmed in Chicago, Philadelphia, and his hometown of Wampum, Pennsylvania. We ' ve been there a couple of times. We’ ve attended the Hall of Fame votes that Dick had at the various baseball winter meetings. We went to Orlando in‘ 21 when Dick didn ' t get in. That was a really emotional scene. And then we went back to Dallas in‘ 24
John SteveOwens Bertrand
when he did get in. We also have 17 or 18 interviews to go along with this. So we ' re really looking forward to an excellent product whenever we can finish it in‘ 26.”
Then he’ ll update the book, too.“ Yes,” he confirms,“ we have a Hall of Fame edition where we ' ll revisit some of the members of the‘ 72 team. A lot of things obviously have happened in Dick ' s life since then, most notably his induction into the Hall of Fame. And a lot of things have happened to his teammates as well.”
I asked him the question you’ re probably thinking right now. How in the world does he have time to do all of this?“ It ' s not easy,” he confirms.“ Sometimes I have to take days off from my day job to work on this passion project. Sometimes I have to work weekends and work nights on this. But, you know, it ' s important to me. It ' s important to David Fletcher, my cowriter of Chili Dog MVP, and the man who is really the enthusiasm and spark behind this project. It’ s important to Sharon Panazzo, another executive producer on the film, who many people will remember as a long-time Cubs media relations person. So it ' s important that we get this done. We have the team in place. We already have one book done. Next year we’ ll have another one and a film too.”